Archive for Contents

Debatable Spaces

Philip Palmer

Philip Palmer
(photo: Charlie Hopkinson)

In January 2008, we’re publishing Debatable Space, a debut novel by Philip Palmer. Subtitled ‘a tale of revenge and revolution’, it’s a space opera of extraordinary imagination, a brilliantly plotted revenge novel, and a vividly realised future history.

It is being published by Orbit on both sides of the Atlantic, and is beginning to attract praise from readers — award winning SF writer Jon Courtenay Grimwood describes it as: “well written, fast moving and defiantly weird in places — definitely a new voice worth listening to.”

Philip Palmer’s official website has launched this week. You can learn more about Philip’s life as a soldier of fortune, lover, murder detective, military interrogator, forensic pathologist and captain of a pirate spaceship, follow his blog, and read an extract from Debatable Space.

Chaos Theory

Dark Space by Marianne de PierresHot on the heels of the publication of Dark Space, Marianne de Pierres has decided on a title for the second book in the Sentients of Orion series: Chaos Space. With chaos theory at the heart of her new space opera, it’s an elegant and appropriate title, and we can’t believe it never occurred to us before.

But let’s not forget about book one! Dark Space continues to draw rave reviews from all corners of the SF world. Like these, for instance, at SFF World and Specusphere, not to mention this interview, also at SFF World.

Jaz Parks has a new look

Once Bitten, Twice Shy

I’m thrilled to announce an updated cover design for the US edition of Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Jennifer Rardin. We’re publishing her first book in October and we thought this was a fabulous look to start off a new series. We’ll be doing her next two books, Another One Bites the Dust and Biting the Bullet in December 07 and February 08. See the new covers after the jump.

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Saturn Returns is in The Bookbag

Saturn Returns by Sean WilliamsSean Williams’ fantastic new space opera, Saturn Returns, is garnering lots of well-deserved attention, from being Waterstone’s SF Bookseller’s Choice this month to this 4-star, out-of-this-world review in The Bookbag: “It’s part detective story and part examination of the nature of identity and people’s relations to each other — between individuals, and between an individual and larger parts of society . . . it’s well written and brought off neatly enough to keep the reader’s interest, and there’s enough mystery to keep you hooked — and there’s really only one central question: Who is Imre Bergamasc and what’s his story?”

You can read the full review here.

Three In A Row!

Voice of the Gods by Trudi CanavanGreat news from the fourth estate. Trudi Canavan’s Voice of the Gods, the rather magnificent conclusion to the Age of the Five trilogy, will debut at No. 4 in the Sunday Times hardback bestseller chart this weekend. This is the third consecutive Top Ten bestseller for Trudi, and the first time one of her books has broken into the Top Five.

If there was any doubt that Trudi is now officially a Big Hitter in commercial fantasy publishing (and, quite frankly, there isn’t — not in the Orbit offices, anyway!) then I think this dispels it. Many congratulations to Trudi on this well deserved success.

And to those of you who have finished the trilogy and are sitting around, empty-handed, with a what next? look on your face . . . well, we’re afraid you’ll have to wait a while longer for The Magician’s Apprentice, the prequel to the bestselling Black Magician Trilogy. Trudi’s hard at work on it, but it’s unlikely to appear much before late ’08 / early ’09. You can find out more about Trudi’s plans for the future in our recent interview.

Meanwhile, you could do a lot worse than look to the links on the right of the screen and try out one or two of Orbit’s other fine authors . . .

Link Roundup

Blogger Graeme Flory has just reviewed Fiona McIntosh’s Odalisque, which Orbit UK publishes this month. He says of it: “I found myself racing through the book to find out how it ended and now I want to read more. McIntosh has created a cast of characters that get under your skin and stay there; relationships are vividly drawn and made this reader want to work through to their conclusions.” You can read the rest of his review here, and there’s also a competition to win one of ten signed copies.

Micro-blogging tool Twitter seems to be the web application everyone’s talking about at the moment. If you’re using it, you can follow updates to this site through our Twitter page.

Finally, Orbit readers in South Africa may be interested in the Fantasy Feast, a special promotion being run through August and September at the Reader’s Paradise bookshop in Cape Town.

A History of Vengeance

At her newly redesigned site, Lilith Saintcrow writes about the inspirations for the Dante Valentine series.

Originally she came from several piecemeal sources. I was watching a lot of the first Kill Bill movie and a wonderful Roman Polanski movie based on an Arturo Perez-Reverte novel, The Ninth Gate, not to mention watching a lot of Seven Samurai. (I’m a big Kurosawa fan.) Danny has a katana because, well, what else does a samurai have? Edged metal and honor. She’s my answer to Toshiro Mifune, I guess.

Other cinematic inspirations? Lady Vengeance, Lady Snowblood, and La Femme Nikita.

Click here to read the article on Lilith’s blog.

Priestess of the Write: An Interview with Trudi Canavan

Trudi Canavan

Trudi Canavan
(photo: Paul Ewins)

The extraordinary, and fantastically gripping, conclusion to Trudi Canavan’s Age of the Five trilogy, Voice of the Gods, was published last week by Orbit UK. To mark the conclusion of her second trilogy, Trudi was kind enough to sit down and answer some questions that we had about her writing, her life and what’s coming up next . . .

The publication of Voice of the Gods will mark the completion of your second trilogy. How do you think your life and your writing have changed between when The Black Magician trilogy was published and now?

Aside from moving house three times, and going from different levels of broke to having financial security, there’s a structure to the future that I’m not used to having. Having been self-employed for over a decade, I was used to not knowing what I’d be doing in a year or two. Now I plan my future in book series.

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